00:00I'm Anne Dinsdale and I'm the Principal Curator at the Bronte Parsonage Museum where we are today.
00:06This is Branwell Bronte's portrait of his sister Emily. It was painted in about 1833, 1834
00:16and originally it was part of a group portrait which included all four Bronte siblings and it's
00:25usually known as the gun group because Branwell featured in the centre holding a gun and with
00:31some dead birds on the table in front of him. After the deaths of all the Brontes the painting was
00:39inherited by Charlotte Bronte's widower Arthur Bell Nichols. He had no great liking for Branwell or
00:48his work and he felt that the likenesses were quite poor. The only one that he thought was a good
00:56likeness was this figure so he actually tore this profile portrait out of the canvas and kept it
01:05and destroyed the rest of the painting and many years later after Nichols' death in 1906
01:141906 this painting along with another surviving group image were found folded up on the top of a
01:21cupboard and they were acquired by the National Portrait Gallery in London and we have this painting
01:29on loan and now until the end of October. It's a really exciting loan and for the parsonage it's lovely
01:38to see the painting back in Howarth where it was painted and we had our busiest Saturday this year
01:47the day that the painting went on display. We have borrowed the paintings before but I think it's about
01:5517 years since this particular painting was in Howarth so we're hoping that you know it's Bradford's year
02:03a city of culture and we're hoping that a lot of people are going to be able to take advantage of this
02:09opportunity to see it here.
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